PORTLAND, Ore. — They led ordinary lives. One interned for two mayors. Another worked as a security guard. And another took care of a child.

Some blended in and went unnoticed, while others raised alarms among their neighbors. All were devout Muslims who attended mosque.

In the aftermath of last week's arrests of four members of an Islamic community here and in Michigan on charges that they were seeking to help Al Qaeda battle the United States, Muslims and others who knew the suspects expressed a range of reactions Saturday, including suspicions of authorities, anger at the suspects and disbelief that their acquaintances could be linked to such a plot.

As has been the case in other parts of the country--from Lackawanna, N.Y., to Denver, to Seattle--the swift moves by federal authorities against alleged terrorists have been trumpeted in Washington, D.C., where they are part of a stepped-up effort to halt terrorism, and often have met with confusion in local communities.

"This incident is heartbreaking and unfathomable," said Linda Walton, a history professor at Portland State University, referring to her former student, Patrice Lumumba Ford, 31, who was arrested Friday and accused of buying a shotgun three days after the Sept. 11 attacks to use in weapons training with Al Qaeda.

Walton said Ford called himself Patrick Ford when he attended Portland's Lincoln High School. Patrice Lumumba was the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo and a symbol of the African drive to shake off European colonial rule.

`Excellent student'

Ford earned his bachelor's degree in East Asian studies from Portland State, Walton said. He went on to do graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and studied Chinese in Nanjing.

"I knew him as an excellent student who had done well and gone on," said Walton, adding that she never heard Ford speak of radical political ideas.

He also worked as an intern for then-Portland Mayor Bud Clark and, a dozen years later, for Mayor Vera Katz.

"He was very quiet, very professional," Katz recalled.

A 14-page indictment unsealed Friday charges that Ford was among at least seven people who conspired to wage war against America, provide material support for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and aid U.S. enemies.

Last year, five members of the group allegedly traveled overseas to try to join Taliban forces in Afghanistan, but the Justice Department did not say whether they made it.

Also arrested in Portland were Jeffrey Leon Battle, 32, the lead defendant and a former member of the U.S. Army Reserves who, authorities believe, enlisted to receive training he could use against the United States; and his ex-wife, October Martinique Lewis, 25. Battle and Lewis were divorced less than six months after marrying in September 1999, but they live together in a southwest Portland apartment complex.

Battle, who worked as a security guard, and Lewis, who cared for Battle's young son, are expected to enter a plea at a court hearing Monday after the court appoints counsel. Ford, for whom a lawyer was appointed, pleaded not guilty Friday.

"It's all a political game. It's all hype," said his brother, James Britt.

He said he and his family are sure of Ford's innocence.

"It's all part of the hysteria. We are going to be with him. We are going to support him every step of the way."

The FBI also arrested Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal in Dearborn, Mich., where he lives. Also named in the indictment were Bilal's brother, Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, 24, and Habis Abdulla al Saoub, 37, a Jordanian. They remain at large. Named as a co-conspirator was Khaled Ali Steitiye, a 40-year-old native of Lebanon who is serving a prison term on weapons and fraud charges.

Extremist activity is hardly a new phenomenon in the Pacific Northwest. Skinheads, ecoterrorists, anarchists and violent animal rights activists have been active in the area.

And Friday's developments are the latest in a string of high-profile arrests of alleged terrorists.

In December 1999, authorities arrested Ahmed Ressam at the Canadian border in Port Angeles, Wash. He was found with 200 pounds of fertilizer, four timing devices and two jars of liquid, and was accused in a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Day 2000. Ressam has been linked to Al Qaeda.

And in July, the FBI in Denver arrested an American Muslim named James Ujaama, who allegedly tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore.

In Lackawanna, N.Y., six Yemeni American men were arrested last month and accused of being part of a sleeper cell of Al Qaeda.

Going back further, Portland 15 years ago was a hotbed of radical activity, much of it centering on Portland State University, which Ford attended.